


You Saved Me

by penguinsledding



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-22
Updated: 2013-04-22
Packaged: 2017-12-09 05:27:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/770526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penguinsledding/pseuds/penguinsledding
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU set during the Awakening. Not all of Aang was healed by the Spirit Water.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Saved Me

Her hands are ice on his skin.

He knows the water should be cooling; should soothe the aching burn of his scar. He was dead. She saved him. It should be that simple.

Lately he’s been discovering it doesn’t work that way.

The water bites, unnaturally cold, burning. The healing session would usually send jolts of electricity down his spine. Her hands, covered in a thin veil of water, would move across him, and they would both feel the familiar, loving tug of their element and the more illicit heat from their touches.

He used to love healing sessions. He would come to her with the smallest of things- a scrape on the knee, a cut from a stray branch. She’d give him a shy, secret smile, embarrassed despite herself. Even the smallest, most chaste touch would incite a blush.

Now, he dreads them. The water isn’t vibrant anymore. It doesn’t live, doesn’t buzz on his fingertips and sing on his skin. It’s just... wet.

He never realized how much he needed bending until it was gone.

It’s the cruelest form of torture, sitting here. Her hands make sopping trails down his back; if he opens his eyes, he can see the blue glow illuminating the room.

He keeps them shut.

Her touch still sends a shiver down his spine. Tears well in his eyes, and he squeezes them shut tighter. He doesn’t blame her. She did her best. 

They are both too busy blaming themselves.

She’s sniffling behind him. It’s rare, these moments of honesty. She usually tries to stay strong; she keeps her chin up. The worst of times seem to bring out the best in her, but even she can’t help but fall apart sometimes. Generally it’s when she least wants to.

Without the Avatar to save them, they are all crumbling. 

“You brought me back,” he reminds them both. Sometimes he still feels dead.

“Hardly,” she mutters.

He can hear the door slam on her way out.


End file.
